Australia
April 17, 2014

Frost continues to be an unpredictable and costly constraint and its impact on yields and profits was particularly significant in many parts of the southern region in late spring last year. Photo: Ben Biddulph.

The Australian grains industry is set to embark on a concerted research effort to help growers – including those in the southern cropping region – in their ongoing battle against frost.
The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) will from July this year more than double its annual investment in frost research, development and extension (RD&E) activities.

The $15 million, five-year national initiative will tackle frost from several angles and aims to deliver growers a combination of genetic and management solutions.

GRDC Southern Regional Panel chair Keith Pengilley says the increased investment has been welcomed by the Panel and the Regional Cropping Solutions Networks which support the Panel in identification of cropping issues.

“Frost continues to be an unpredictable and costly constraint and its impact on yields and profits was particularly significant in many parts of the southern region in late spring last year,” Mr Pengilley said.

“At recent GRDC grains research Updates in the southern region we have heard from researchers that there has been an increase in frost frequency in many areas in the past 20 years.

“And even though frost is a relatively rare occurrence, some areas do seem to be more prone to the condition than others and the ‘frost window’ appears to be ending later in the season.”
It is estimated that frost damage costs the national grains industry more than $360 million on average each year.

GRDC’s new frost-related RD&E investments, being undertaken in addition to an existing stable of frost research projects, will have three components – genetics, management and environmental.

A key component of the genetics research will be the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) which involves the targeted acquisition of cereal germplasm from all over the world and testing for its frost tolerance.

Farming systems will be the focus of the management component of the new frost investments, and measures to be investigated include the effects of stubble, grazing, nutrition and the use of plant growth regulators to manipulate flowering times. Research into environmental factors influencing frost will aim to understand landscape features that influence the severity of frost.

Primary research organisations which will lead the frost research include the University of Adelaide, the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, and the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

The collaborative Australian National Frost Program (ANFP) will continue working on the production of frost rankings for wheat and barley varieties, investigate pre-emptive measures for growers and continue research into developing frost-tolerant varieties.

Details of GRDC-funded frost research projects are contained in the GRDC Ground Cover Frost Supplement in the March-April edition of the GRDC magazine Ground Cover and available for viewing and downloading via www.grdc.com.au/GCS109.

In the meantime, Mr Pengilley said growers in the southern region should be cautious about the strategies they employ this cropping season in a bid to minimise the risk of frost damage.
“While cultural practices such as delayed time of sowing can reduce the risk of frost damage, yield potential losses caused by such frost avoidance strategies can be sizeable, and this needs to be factored into growers’ time of sowing considerations,” he said.

Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries Seasonal Variability Agronomist Dale Grey, who has been speaking to growers and their advisers at recent GRDC grains research Updates, says to maximise frost risk resilience, a mix of sowing dates and maturity types can work depending on the severity of frosts.

“In frost prone areas, there are many things you can do to mitigate against frost damage in the not-so-bad frost years,” Mr Grey said.

“These include sowing an earlier maturing variety early, and sowing barley and oats which have much greater temperature thresholds than wheat.

“If you have copped one too many frosts in the same paddock, you might start treating those parts of the property slightly differently.

“Frost mitigation really requires some serious mixing up of the cropping program, but in years of severe frost, it may not matter what you do to prevent damage,” Mr Grey said.

More information on frost and its impact on crops can be found in the GRDC Managing Frost Risk booklet which is available for viewing and downloading via www.grdc.com.au/GRDC-Booklet-ManagingFrostRisk or for purchase of a hard copy at $10 plus postage and handling from Ground Cover Direct, free phone 1800 110044 or email ground-cover-direct@canprint.com.au.
 

Website: http://www.grdc.com.au

Published: April 17, 2014